Late Middle Ages · Middle East · Culture

1396

Turko-Mongol traveler Hafiz dies in Shiraz

1396

The greatest Persian lyric poet died in his hometown after refusing repeated invitations to visit foreign courts, preferring his garden and his wine. Legend says Timur summoned him to Samarkand and grilled him about a verse offering up Bukhara and Samarkand for a beautiful Shirazi mole. Hafiz reportedly replied that such generosity had bankrupted him.